Geopolitics

Are Rare Earths Really That Rare?

Zeihan on Geopolitics

Are Rare Earths Really That Rare?

by Peter Zeihan on March 3, 2025

Today’s video was originally released on Patreon 1 week ago. If you want to see the videos as soon as they come out, join the Patreon!

You’ll get early access to videos and newsletters, as well as exclusive perks like live Q&A sessions, a community forum, daily news digests, and more, only on Patreon.

LINK FOR THE PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/peterzeihan

Rare earths are back in the headlines, but is all the hype worth it? Let’s breakdown what these are and how “rare” they actually are.

Rare earths are byproducts of mining for other metals like nickel, copper, and uranium. While not rare on Earth, they are rarely found in sufficient abundance in a single location for their mining to be economically viable. The only real challenging aspect lies in the refining process, which is just dirty, time-consuming, and expensive…but not all that difficult to do.

China dominates rare earths because they have subsidized production (artificially lowering the price) and they’ve been doing it for decades. So, other countries haven’t had any incentive to turn on their refining capacity, yet. Once the Chinese overplay their hand or the system crumbles, other nations will just ramp up production.

This isn’t really something to fear, other than a few months of issues. However, the US should be more concerned with other critical supply chains like aluminum, steel, and lithium, where the US has yet to build out sufficient infrastructure.

Please click below to watch today’s video

Can Tariffs Replace Income Taxes? || Peter Zeihan

YouTube Video Link: https://youtu.be/WzAgmP1KIk4

We appreciate the interest and engagement from our followers, but with Peter’s travel schedule and sheer volume of requests, we are unable to answer non-business-related questions via e-mail. Use the ‘Ask Peter’ page below for your video topics, ideas and burning questions…

follow me on socials

To make sure you get our emails, please add our email address to your saved contacts or Whitelist.

Categories: Geopolitics

Leave a Reply